May 20, 2012 – Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; John 17:6-19
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; John 17:6-19
Given to Jesus
Seventh Sunday of Easter – May 20, 2012
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
This story about Matthias being chosen as the twelfth apostle to replace Judas has
some good news in it.
The good news is the Easter Good News that nothing can get in the way of
God’s loving mission to bless this world and every person in it.
The big deals of religion and state can’t thwart it, for God resurrects what they kill.
The disciples in their betrayal and running away can’t thwart it, for Jesus forgives them and
invites them to carry on.
Even Judas and his particular betrayal can’t thwart it: God’s plans cannot be held back.
The ministry to all people will continue: to the rich and the poor, to the Jew and the Gentile,
to men and to women, to the aged and to the children.
God will find a way, a gracious way, to continue the ministry.
And that is good news.
This morning in Acts God finds a way, and chooses Matthias to continue in Judas’s place.
It’s clear in the story that Matthias is of God’s choosing.
Why Matthias? Well, Luke seems to say, why not Matthias?
Matthias will become a witness to something much, much larger than himself:
a witness to the resurrection says Luke, a witness to the fact that Jesus has been
raised from the dead and continues to live and work through his new body,
his post-resurrection body, the body of his disciples.
This morning’s readings are kind of remarkable when you look at them all together.
They show God’s amazing confidence in those he calls into ministry.
They show God’s amazing confidence in you to continue the ministry started in Jesus.
Matthias is added to the eleven apostles, just like that. Why Matthias? Why not Matthias.
In First John, the writer confidently states: Whoever has the Son has life. End of discussion.
And in John’s Gospel this morning, Jesus speaks of his disciples more highly than
he does anywhere else.
We’re so used to Jesus having to deal with blockhead disciples that this comes as rather a
shock, and as kind of refreshing.
On the night they will betray and abandon him, Jesus sees something else in them.
Jesus sees that there’s more to them than they themselves see.
This is what he says to his Father about them:
They have believed that you sent me.
I have been glorified in them.
I have sent them into the world.
They were yours and you gave them to me.
Jesus here displays a lot of confidence in the disciples.
A lot of confidence that ultimately the God of all mercy and the God of all compassion can
work through them.
They will make mistakes, they will stumble, they will all betray and abandon him.
But that’s not the end of the story.
The end of the story belongs to God, and God has a plan for them.
Jesus sees who they really are.
They are not cowardly.
They are not fearful.
They are capable of bearing the divine light and love to all in any need.
Jesus sees that in them, and Jesus invites them to grow into that true identity.
You know how often people see things in us – true things – that we cannot see ourselves?
Jesus sees us that way.
Jesus, who always speaks the truth, is able to say to us,
You know how you really screwed up back there?
You know how you’re not always everything I call you to be?
Those things are real, but I see more in you.
Jesus sees you in your potential.
Like the coach who says to you at the beginning of the season,
By the end of the season you’re going to be doing 17 sets of windsprints and you just
look at her like she’s crazy because after doing just three you’re a
heaving jelly-like mass on the ground.
But by the end of the season, you’re doing 17.
The thing is, Jesus says here that you’ve been given to him for the purpose of
continuing his ministry.
You’ve been given to Jesus.
You gave them to me, says Jesus in his prayer this morning.
Do we ever consider that we are gifts to Jesus?
Just as Matthias is given to Jesus this morning, in our baptisms, God gives us to Jesus.
You have what Jesus needs to become visible in this world.
President Anne said at the Annual Meeting this year that we have everything we need to
do what God is calling us to do as a congregation.
You don’t need to wait to have more members or more money or more whatever.
And you’re not.
Jesus sees you in your potential and you’re realizing it.
Last week a visitor said to me, “I have never encountered a more welcoming congregation.”
Now that warms a pastor’s heart, and you can be sure it warms Jesus’s heart.
The way you care for one another, your faithfulness in worship, your generosity in giving,
your willingness to step up and do what’s needed, your various outreach ministries:
truly you are living into who God is calling you to be,
into the potential Jesus sees in you.
With all that God has given you, you are becoming tremendous gifts to Jesus.
Now this is hard work. And it is challenging work because there is so much that pulls us from it.
Adults have the increasing busy-ness of their lives to contend with.
The elderly have to contend with a culture that tells them, “You’ve done your bit, retire, relax,
let someone younger do it.”
The young, meanwhile, have to contend with the pressure on them that says
while church is important your sports team is actually more important,
or whatever happens to be more important at that moment.
Even though we are given to Jesus, which is ultimately a gracious thing, it is not an easy thing.
And so, what we find this morning in John’s wondrous Gospel passage,
is that Jesus is praying for us. Jesus is praying for the disciples.
And Jesus is still praying for us. Even now.
Jesus prays that we might trust that he comes from and shows us the true God of all that is.
Jesus prays that he might be glorified in all that do.
Jesus prays that we might be sent into the world even as he was sent into the world,
to bring blessing to all in any need.
Jesus prays that we might continue to be gifts to him.
Jesus is praying for you right now that you might witness in a generous life to
the grace, abundance, courage and love that Jesus brings into our midst.
In other words, Jesus is praying right now that you might witness with your life
to his resurrection from the dead, just as Matthias was chosen to do long ago.
It’s powerful, isn’t it, to know that Jesus is praying for you?
And it’s powerful to know that fellow Christians, fellow members of Jesus’s
post-resurrection body, are praying for you.
When I was going through seminary I was assigned a “relator” from the synod,
someone who was to provide encouragement and
support throughout the years of training.
While that person was not always the support I needed, I was taken aback when I
finally met with her after not having seen her for a long time.
She asked me very specifically about my wife, my boy Peter, and about concerns that
I’d had about them and about myself.
And that’s when I know she’d been praying for me every day and
bringing these concerns to God for me.
And that was powerful.
I pray for the sick among us daily, and one of you told me recently you can feel it.
My dad prays for me every day, and I know that several of you do, too.
That’s powerful.
So this morning, here’s what I want you to do.
Take the slip of paper that was given to you and write your first name on it.
Now: I want you to take a moment and think:
What do you need in order to be the follower of Jesus that Jesus knows you have it in you to be?
What do you need in order for Jesus’s ministry to continue through you?
Take a moment, think about it, then write down what it is you need below your name. [give time]
Now exchange your paper with someone nearby who is not a family member.
Every day this week I invite each of you to pray for the person and their need on that paper.
Next week, you can thank each other for having joined in Jesus’s continual praying for you.
Take heart: you, with Matthias, have been given to Jesus and his ministry.
But you, along with Matthias, are not alone. This week, let us pray for one another.
And together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
